I?’ She resisted the effort to rub the tingling spot on her arm where Sin’s fingers had just touched her. ‘Or maybe it’s just that I don’t care to be in the company of a man who has the opinion of me that you do,’ she said sarcastically.
‘And what opinion is that, Luccy?’
She gave a dismissive laugh. ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone else who has believed me capable of blackmail—let alone actually accused me of it!’ Her voice had hardened over the last words, her eyes glittering angrily as she looked at him in furious challenge.
Sin’s gaze was narrowed. ‘You have to admit—’
‘I don’t have to admit anything, least of all to being guilty to any of the accusations you made against me,’ Luccy insisted. ‘And, fortunately, I don’t have to stand here and hear them repeated, either. I find it rather warm in here, so if you’ll excuse me—’
‘No, Luccy, I won’t excuse you,’ Sin growled harshly as he stepped in front of her to stop her departure.
Sin wondered what it was about this particular woman that just touching the silky softness of her skin a few minutes ago had made him want to sweep her up in his arms and carry her out of here to the nearest bed.
None of the other women he had known had ever made him feel like shaking her and kissing her at the same time! In light of what had happened between them two months ago the first emotion was easily explained, but surely that second instinct should have been nullified by the first?
She eyed him coldly. ‘What do you mean no?’
His mouth quirked humourlessly. ‘Exactly what I said,’ he grated tersely. ‘I haven’t finished talking to you yet—’
‘But I have finished talking to you,’ she announced calmly.
Sin looked about them impatiently; if anything the room was even more crowded and noisy than it had been a few minutes ago. ‘Let’s get out of here and go somewhere we can talk without interruption,’ he rasped.
Luccy gave a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you, Sin.’
One thing she had decided on before she came to New York: if she did see Sin again then she certainly wasn’t going to allow herself to be alone with him.
She only had to look at him now, at the lean ruthlessness of his face, the hard contours of his muscled body, to know that she was still as physically aware of him as she had been the night they’d met.
She only had to look at the hot glitter of Sin’s eyes as he looked at her, the sensual twist to his lips, to know that he felt exactly the same way.
And it wasn’t going to happen.
Not again.
Not ever.
He raised his eyebrows in tacit challenge. Then, ‘Scared, Luccy?’
She flicked her hair back over her shoulder as her chin rose. ‘That ploy may have worked once, Sin, but it isn’t going to work a second time.’
Sin stood so he was barely inches away from her. ‘How many times have you thought of our time together, Luccy? How many times have you lain awake in your bed at night aching with arousal?’ he murmured.
Now that he was with Luccy again, practically touching her, Sin could recall each and every one of the nights he had lain awake in his own bed, hot and hard as he thought of the silky feel of this woman’s skin, as he remembered surging into the heat of her tight sheath as she climaxed wildly and took him with her.
Unfortunately those memories had always quickly been followed by the realisation that she had only been using him that night…
How often had she thought of Sin Sinclair? Luccy asked herself achingly. Too many times, considering their last conversation! On several occasions she had even dreamt of this man, actually felt him inside her, only to awaken and find her body hot and trembling, her breasts full and tingling, a dampness between her thighs.
Had she come here tonight with the expectation of seeing Sin again? Had all her excuses, all the reasons she had given herself for having to be here, really been because she had needed to see Sin one last time? To know if that night two months ago had merely been an aberration on her part, or if she still wanted him?
Well, if she had, Luccy now had her answer—she trembled with the sheer physical awareness of just being near Sin again!
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mr Sinclair,’ she told him scornfully, ‘but I’ve been far too busy with my career to spare you a single thought.’
‘Liar!’
Her eyes widened at his soft accusation. ‘You—’
‘Are you going to keep this lovely young lady to yourself all evening, Sin?’
Luccy removed her gaze thankfully from Sin’s glitteringly compelling one to look past him to the elderly man who had just joined them. He was tall and slender in the black evening clothes, with a shock of snowy-white hair, it was nevertheless easy to see from the similarity in the ruthless hardness of their features that this was Sin’s grandfather, Jacob Sinclair Senior.
Her back stiffened as Sin moved to stand beside her and curve his arm lightly about her waist before making the introductions.
‘Luccy, this is my grandfather, Jacob Sinclair,’ he said smoothly. ‘Grandfather, meet Lucinda Harper-O’Neill.’
Grey eyes almost as piercing as his grandson’s looked her over speculatively. ‘The clever young lady with the camera,’ Jacob Sinclair finally murmured approvingly. ‘You have done a tremendous job for us during this last year.’
Luccy raised surprised brows at his knowledge of her work. ‘How nice of you to say so.’
‘I don’t believe that nice is necessarily a Sinclair trait, Miss Harper-O’Neill.’ The elderly man chuckled. ‘What do you say, Sin?’ he prompted his grandson dryly.
‘I say you could at least let Luccy get to know me a little better before telling her that,’ Sin came back.
The elderly man gave an unrepentant grin. ‘Our bark is much worse than our bite,’ he confided in Luccy lightly.
Not in Luccy’s experience, it wasn’t!
Neither was she in the least comfortable with that possessive arm curved about her waist…
‘What do you think, Luccy?’ Sin felt, and ignored, Luccy’s attempts to escape his hold on her waist, the tightening of his fingers warning her to cease her squirming. ‘Is my bark worse than my bite?’ he queried huskily, his mouth quirking mockingly as he saw the blush that now coloured her cheeks.
‘Now, Sin, you really shouldn’t embarrass Miss Harper-O’Neill in this way,’ his grandfather admonished him laughingly.
‘Please call me Luccy,’ she invited the old man. ‘And where your grandson is concerned, I do assure you I’m beyond
